Concern that other traditionally conservative political parties have “watered down their values” has driven Garry McMahon to stand for the seat of Orange on behalf of the Australian Conservatives.
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“We believe that we’re offering a real alternative here and we believe that we are the true conservatives in Australian politics,” Mr McMahon said.
“I personally feel that a great deal of disappointment about what has been happening in Australian politics at a federal and state level and we believe that we can give it a good go.
“We have, I believe, over 15 people standing for the upper house, I was the first candidate that was nominated for the lower house, as of Saturday we have eight candidates now standing across NSW, many in Sydney but there are a few country areas.”
The Orange resident and former businessman said the five key areas he would support are health and education, calling for more police resources, development of small business, working to keep energy, water and resource prices down, and giving young people more say.
Seven weeks is a short campaign but we believe we can do it.
- Australian Conservatives candidate Garry McMahon
“I believe the NSW government can have some more pressure applied to get more resourcing for police and more here,” Mr McMahon said.
“In December we went to level three water restrictions and I believe we have to look at how we are managing our water.
“I would be working with council and the water authority to see what the allocations are to water and how that could be improved.”
He said young people also didn’t have enough say so he would put together a forum for people aged between 18 and 30 to give feedback about issues that are important to them, and he would also have a forum involving year 11 students from high schools across the electorate.
Although McMahon only presented himself as a candidate on Tuesday he said he had a chance when it came to defeating incumbent Orange MP and Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party member Phil Donato, Country Labor candidate Luke Sanger and Nationals candidate Kate Hazelton.
“Seven weeks is a short campaign but we believe we can do it,” he said.
“In terms of the other parties, the Nationals have fielded some very good candidates in the past and [Kate Hazelton] will be a formidable candidate to campaign against.
“The Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party, that party was elected in 2016 at the byelection and I understand really from talking to most people that they were elected as being a conservative alternative I would stand against that and say they are not a conservative alternative.”
He said there were instances that he saw in speeches and question times when the Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party has supported issues alongside the Greens and Labor in NSW Parliament.
“I believe I have a strong business, leadership background and I believe it’s strong enough to say that I’m someone who can get the job done,” he said.
He said he has worked in management for various businesses including as state manager for IEI Australia, which was since bought out by Mitsubishi, and imported electronic security systems.
He was also communications manager at AGL and subsidiary companies in Sydney and was technical director of business lobby group Australian Telecommunications Users Group, which folded last year after 23 years.
“I was chairman of the board of a drug and alcohol facility in Sydney [Blacktown Alcohol and Other Drug Family Services] and I was involved in securing new funding for a brand new initiative called Bridges and that was very successful, I have also worked in support of families of people incarcerated and a lot of other things,” Mr McMahon said.
The Australian Conservatives was launched by senator Corey Bernardi in 2017 and based its policies around supporting the traditional family framework, limited government, personal responsibility, free enterprise and civil society that follows Judeo-Christian tradition.
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